Coccidiosis is an illness particularly of poultry due to the infection arising from one or several species of coccidiae or protozoa of large size of the sporozoa type. These protozoa, frequent in poultry raising, are ingested by animals in the form of sporulated oocyst. They thus undergo in the digestive tract of animals a cycle of development and multiplication such that, starting from several sporulated oocysts, there are excreted in fecal material millions of non-sporulated oocysts. The non-sporulated oocysts, which are not infectious, are transformed during their stay in fecal material after excretion, and hence in the litter, into sporulated infectious oocysts. But only a portion of the non-sporulated oocysts are transformed into sporulated oocysts; however, the degree of sporulation depends on the composition of the fecal materials: moisture content, oxygen content, pH, etc. If sporulation is intense, the reinfected animals will perish or will experience very reduced growth and production. If sporulation is moderate, the animals will suffer only a slight infection and thus are immunized.
The object of the present invention therefore is to provide a composition adapted to be incorporated in poultry litter, whose action is based on the reduction of sporulation of the oocysts in said litter and permits practically preventing the pathogenic reinfection of the poultry.
There are already known from GB-A-2 108 389 disinfectant compounds for the treatment of litter which contain as a biocidal agent an alkyl benzene sulfonic acid dissolved in an oily hydrophobic base. Such compositions are adapted to act only on the litter itself, and the disinfectant agent that they contain can be harmful to the animals that ingest it.